Chapter Five: Gift One is Intelligence
Fi: Gin.
Furuba: *slaps forehead* Again?! That's the 98th time this week! That makes the score 98 to… 2.
Fi: and that means you owe me 98,000 dollars.
Furuba: I knew we shouldn't have made the bet worth 1,000 for every gin. *sighs and shrugs* I will pay you back somehow. Until then, you know what to do.
Fi: Furuba Rocks own nothing in these stories…she also does not own 98,000 dollars.
Furuba: Yes they get the point, now read the story!
…..Normal POV…..
Susan walked along the path next to Farian. They had been on the road for four days so far trying to get to the river Rush (which Peter insisted was the quickest way there but obviously he had forgotten that it had been hundreds of years since he had been to Narnia so the layout of the land was very different due to erosion) but they just kept wandering through these bunch of rocks and sometimes some trees. Susan had no idea where they were but she didn't bother thinking about that. What was on her mind now was where Link had gotten his bow.
When she first saw Link the only weapon he had on him was his sword and shield. Since then she had seen him use two more. His bow which he used to save Lucy and a flying bug watch he called a Beetle. He had used the Beetle to get some food out of the trees since they were running low on food again due to traveling with nowhere to go. What bothered Susan was the fact that these items just seemed to appear out of thin air and disappear just as easily. Who knows how many other weapons he could be hiding from them without them knowing. And there was something else…she didn't know why but she felt as if they were being followed. Susan furrowed her brow, more puzzled than ever before shaking her head. She would voice her concerns to Peter at least except all of the others trusted Link without question. They wouldn't take her seriously if she told them she thought he was hiding something. The only thing anyone might believe her on would be that they might be followed by someone. She would have to point that out to Peter at least so she pushed ahead past Edmund to get to Peter just as we reached the river Rush.
…..Ruto's POV…..
"Why is it that only Link gets our gifts? It looks like everyone in that little group could use them," Nabooru said as she sat on a tree limb in a faded silhouette that made her only visible to certain people, "Except for that Susan girl. She looks like she needs a gift of fun and not intelligence. She already has enough of that."
I sighed before answering, "I don't know. Maybe because Link is the only one from our world."
Laughing Nabooru responded, "You know what? For the one giving the give of intelligence you are extremely dumb."
I looked at her, a sarcastic look on my face that pointed out what I was going to say to my friend who knew me so well, "For someone who is in charge of Spirit you are really a downer. Will you just let me do my job?"
Leaning back she said, "How do you know that it is time to give him your gift?"
"It's just a feeling I have, like Rauru said we would get. You'll see later, now shut up."
"Whatever you say Water Queen," Nabooru said, her tone of voice telling me that she had lost interest.
I looked towards the group as they debated a way to cross the trench of a river before I used my Sage magic to extend my hearing to hear what they were saying. It was a little confusing as I didn't know two of the people and I didn't hear the earlier conversation but I got the gist of it.
Link: We could jump.
Dwarf: I wouldn't be able to make that jump.
Link: One of us could carry you.
Dwarf: Never! That would go against honor!
Telmarine: There are other ways across other than jumping.
Susan: Like what? Make a rope bridge? We don't have the time or materials.
Edmund: What about climbing down, crossing down there, and then climbing back up?
Peter: Too risky. One of us would get hurt.
Susan: Finally! Someone who sees reason.
Lucy: Susan! At least there coming up with ideas instead of insisting that we are being followed!
Susan: Well I don't see you jumping up with ideas that could actually help us!
Telmarine: Will you both shut up?! Fighting amongst ourselves won't help us!
Dwarf: For once I agree with the Telmarine. Fighting won't help. But there is another way to get to the Shuddering Woods.
Edmund: What is that?
Dwarf: We could cross at the Ford of Buruna. There is a lot of swimming but it is better than climbing or jumping over a trench.
Telmarine: One problem with that…Miraz is having a large bridge built there to bring armies across. We would get caught the second we got there.
Peter: Then now what do we do?
What they were going to do I don't think I would find the response to because Lucy stared at the other side of the river and asked out loud, "Aslan?"
Everyone, including me, turned to where she was looking. I don't know if anyone else saw anything but I saw the faint silhouette of a lion I had seen before on the other side. It was Aslan and he turned to me and nodded, telling me that now was the time.
I turned to the group who were asking Lucy if she really saw Aslan or just a random Lion. I singled Link out and got ready. I raised my hand to my mouth and blew gently on it until I had a small blue orb in my hand. I flattened out my hand and blew on the orb again sending it floating away from me and towards Link. It entered his body in his back, right where his heart was, unnoticed by anyone of the people in the group.
…..Normal POV…..
Link felt the orb enter his body; it felt like drinking plenty of ice cold water until he felt as if he would never be thirsty again. He spun around looking at everyone and everything. All these questions seemed to just float around his head but just as soon as the question came so did answer just minutes later as soon as he started thinking about it.
"Link? What's wrong?" Edmund asked, turning everyone's attention to Link. But Link didn't pay attention to any of them. Instead his attention was on the Lion beckoning him to the other side of the river.
"We have to cross the river…" Link muttered.
"What? How do you suppose we will do that?" Peter asked.
"There's a path down there leading down and a similar path on the other side. We can climb down, cross, and climb back up. We should get up to the other side by dusk. Aslan wants us too"
"How do you know that?" Susan asked, disbelief in her voice. Link didn't know why but it sounded as if she didn't trust him very much.
"Look," Link said pointing to where the path started. It was in such a place that he couldn't believe they hadn't noticed it before.
"Oh." Trumpkin said.
Peter sighed before he started down the path, Lucy in front of him and the rest of the group making a line behind him.
The group went down the trail. It wound every which way, up and down; it got thin so that only one person could walk at a time and there were other times when all of them could walk along side each other with room to spare. No one knew how this trail could possibly be there except for Lucy and Link. They both kept saying that it was all Aslan's work. Once Farian looked behind them and couldn't find the trail back to the top at all, it was as if it had disappeared as soon as they stopped walking on it. They all continued down until they got to the bottom and Farian told Peter about the trail disappearing.
"It just disappeared?"
"Yes it did, I don't know how but now I think that Lucy and Link are right and Aslan is doing something."
"But none of us have seen Aslan except them, how do we know that it isn't just some random lion like that bear was?"
"I don't know. I can be sure that as soon as we get to the top of the river-cliff than the path will disappear there too."
"That's not the only thing that has been disappearing," Susan put in quietly as she caught up to the two boys in front of her as they all started the long climb back up.
"What do you mean?" Farian asked her.
Susan sighed before answering, "Remember Link's bow and his Beetle? Where did they come from and where did they go? There is no way he could be hiding that stuff on his body, we would see it."
"Maybe…he's magic. That wouldn't surprise me." Peter said.
Susan shook her head, annoyance on her face, "Magic doesn't exist Peter, remember?"
"But magic does exist Su, otherwise Narnia is all just a dream that we all are having," Peter countered.
"Narnia isn't a dream, I can assure you of that," Farian put in.
"But how could Link have access to such magic?" Susan asked, pointing out the flaw in their logic.
Peter and Farian thought about all of this for a little while…or a long while. They finally answered when they were halfway up the path to the top.
"What about the Goddess that Link told us about? She could have granted him a bag with unlimited space inside of it." Farian said.
"Or….his little blue friend, Fi. She could easily have magic of her own that Link has access to; after all…she is in his sword. Wouldn't surprise me if that was the answer." Peter said.
They all got to a landing and stopped to take a break and eat a little bit. Trumpkin tossed around the water skin so everyone could have some. After he left them, Susan, Peter, and Farian continued their discussion.
"But she didn't show up whenever Link needed his supplies, how can she be the answer?" Susan asked.
Farian answered her, "the source of magic doesn't have to be there to let you use some of it, just nearby. Since Fi is in Link's sword then that must have been good enough."
"I don't think so…" Susan said, disbelief on her face and in her voice.
"Well then let's ask Link," Peter said. He took off running before Susan could say now and Farian was hot on his heels and Susan had no choice but to follow them. Within seconds they were all standing in front of Link.
Link looked curiously at them, not knowing what they could want but his questions were soon answered.
"Link, we got a question for you," Peter asked.
"Go ahead."
"Your bow and that Beetle thing you used, where did they come from?"
Link looked at all of their faces before laughing. He understood their confusion. He didn't know either until Fi explained it to him.
"I'll let Fi explain, she knows more about it." Link said as he touched the tip of his sword and soon Fi came shooting out of it.
"Yes master?" she asked.
"Fi, Peter, Farian, and Susan want to know about where my supplies are kept and how I access them. Could you explain it please?" Link asked the blue floating woman.
"Gladly," Fi said, turning the three people in question, "Master Link's supplies are carried by me. When he thinks of a weapon that he needs the sword alerts me and I make it appear in his hand. You see, when the Goddess made me and chose her Hero she put a mind link to us both that is anchored by the sword. This gives us better storage space for what he needs me to store since the Goddess gave me unlimited storage space."
The three of them were speechless after this explanation before Peter turned to Susan and said, "Told you so."
Everyone except Susan than burst out laughing at this comment.
…Normal POV…
The group made it to the top on the other side of the river at dusk. All of them were tired and exhausted and Trumpkin, Lucy, and Edmund laid down on the ground and fell asleep almost at once.
Peter laughed, "They have the right idea. I'll take the first watch."
Everyone else nodded their thanks and also fell asleep as Peter started a fire.
Furuba: Chapter done! REVIEW PLEASE!
Fi: I'm glad that I was able to be in this chapter.
Furuba: And you will be in the next chapter too!
